Chandigarh, October 12 – The Chandigarh Punjabi Manch held meetings at the Gurdwara Sahibs in Khudda Alisher and Bahlana villages to prepare for the November 1st protest march. The meeting was held in Khudda Alisher under the supervision of Patron Baba Gurdayal Singh and Secretary Gurpreet Singh Somal. Nath Singh Numberdar, Gurcharan Singh, former Panch, Giani Khushal Singh, Bhavtaran Singh, General Secretary, Youth Club Khudda Alisher, and others assured the Manch officials that, like every year, a large number of people would participate in the protest march from Khudda Alisher village. Comrade Devi Dayal Sharma praised the villagers' enthusiasm for their mother tongue.
A meeting was held in village Bahlana under the chairmanship of Manjit Singh, President of the Gurdwara Sahib Managing Committee. The Forum's President Sukhjit Singh Sukha Hallomajra, General Secretary Comrade Devi Dayal Sharma, and Treasurer Sharanjit Singh Baidwan Raipur Kalan attended the meeting, who appealed to the villagers to join the march.
Addressing the gathering, the Forum officials stated that the Forum has been continuously fighting for Punjabi language status as the first and administrative language in the Union Territory of Chandigarh for a long time.
Repeatedly, through protest marches and sit-ins, the demand for Punjabi language implementation has been raised with the Governor of Punjab, who is also the Administrator of Chandigarh, and top officials of the administration, but the administration has paid no attention.
Even before the Lok Sabha elections, the Forum had held a sit-in under the bridge in Sector 17, inviting leaders from all political parties and extracting a promise from them that whichever party's candidate wins the election, that party will give Punjabi language its due status in Chandigarh. The Forum deeply regrets that the political leaders are not fulfilling their promise.
He said that before November 1, 1966, Punjabi was the primary and administrative language in Chandigarh, but from November 1, English was imposed here. The forum is continuously carrying forward its struggle to end this stubborn attitude of the Chandigarh administration towards the Punjabi language, due to which preparations have now been started for a protest march on November 1. Meetings will be held in villages and urban areas to mobilize people for the protest march.
He said that this protest march to be taken out on November 1 will start from Makhan Shah Lubana Bhawan in Sector 30, pass through various areas and end at Gurudwara Sahib in Sector 22.